Live chat software is the technology behind the chat window on your website: the window visitors see, the inbox where conversations arrive and the integrations that send leads to your sales team. Which software works well depends less on the feature list than on what happens after the first question.

Below you will find the essentials for each topic: what the software does, which features matter, how AI fits in, what it costs and how to choose. If you want to go deeper, each section points you to the article that covers it in full.

What is live chat software?

Live chat software consists of two parts: the widget the visitor sees and the inbox in which your team or AI answers the conversations. Both need to be right. A good-looking widget with a messy inbox leads to missed chats; a strong inbox behind an inconspicuous widget leads to few conversations.

The widget is the chat window on your site, usually a button in the bottom right in your own branding. You place it with one small script. The inbox is the dashboard behind the scenes: there you see who is on your site, all conversations arrive and you pass a conversation on to a colleague. You will also see it called chat software or website chat software. All the parts side by side are in the explanation of what live chat software is and which features you need.

The features that really make a difference

The most important features are about what happens to a conversation, not about how the window looks. With every solution, look at these six:

  • One inbox for all channels: visitors start in the chat and reply later via WhatsApp or email. With website chat, WhatsApp and Messenger in one overview, you see the whole conversation.
  • Handover with context: passing a conversation to a colleague, or from AI to a person, with the full history attached.
  • Proactive messages per page: a different invitation on a model page than on your contact page.
  • Integrations: conversations and contact details go automatically to your CRM, calendar or helpdesk.
  • Transcript: a copy of the conversation for the visitor and for your sales team.
  • Reporting: how many conversations come in, how quickly they are answered and how many lead to an enquiry.

A live chat app on your phone is handy for a small team that keeps an eye on things in the evening. Fully answering a question about a specific car or kitchen usually works better behind a screen, with the website open alongside.

AI in live chat software

More and more live chat software can answer standard questions itself with AI, day and night. That works well for predictable questions such as opening hours, lead times or the status of an appointment. For advice or bespoke work, you need someone who thinks along and takes over.

So always ask how the AI handles a question it cannot answer. Good software announces the handover and gives the member of staff the whole conversation. Transparency matters too: under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, people must be told when they are interacting with an AI system, and good practice is to always offer a route to a person.

Three types of chat solution

Chat solutions differ mainly in who holds the conversation. Decide that first, and only then compare providers.

  • Software you staff yourself. You get the window, the inbox and the integrations. Your own team answers the chats, usually during office hours.
  • Software with AI that answers by itself. An AI chatbot handles standard questions. You set it up and keep it up to date yourself.
  • Software, AI and staffing in one. The provider also supplies the people: AI for standard questions, chat specialists who ask follow-up questions and take over, in the evening and at the weekend too.

How to set those options side by side and which questions to ask every provider is covered in choosing the best live chat software. If you do not want to set up and staff the technology yourself, live chat software including set-up and chat specialists is the better fit.

Does live chat software suit your organisation?

Live chat delivers the most when visitors have questions before they buy, enough traffic comes to your site and someone answers quickly. Four questions help you check:

  • Do enough visitors come to your website to hold conversations?
  • Do your visitors ask questions before they buy, as with a car, a kitchen or windows?
  • Can someone answer quickly, in the evening and at the weekend too?
  • Does your sales team follow up enquiries from the chat quickly?

The first two questions decide whether live chat makes sense. The last two mainly decide which form fits. The detail for each situation is in live chat for business.

What does live chat software cost?

The price of live chat software depends on the pricing model and on what is included. You will mainly come across these three models:

  • Per user: you pay per member of staff in the inbox. Good value with a small team, but you still pay for that team’s hours on top.
  • Per conversation: common with AI; you pay according to use.
  • Including staffing: you pay for the software, the AI and the people who chat. The balance between AI and people then determines most of the price.

So compare the total cost and not just the licence: the software plus the hours you or your team put in. What that looks like for a staffed chat is shown on our pricing page.

Installation, set-up and privacy

Installation is the smallest piece of work. You place one script in your website’s code or via Google Tag Manager. Filling the knowledge base, writing chat scripts, setting triggers and agreeing what a good lead is takes more time. How that works step by step is covered in how to add live chat to your website.

Mind privacy as well. A chat provider processes personal data on your behalf, so under UK GDPR you need a written contract with them as your processor. Ask where the conversations are stored, and only ask visitors in the chat for the details you really need.

Getting results from live chat software

Used well, live chat software produces enquiries, not just conversations. The difference comes down to three things: when you approach a visitor, how you ask follow-up questions and what happens after the conversation.

  • Approaching at the right moment: an invitation when someone views several model pages or stays on a pricing page for a long time. That is how increasing conversions with live chat works.
  • Asking towards a next step: from a question about a trim to a test drive, quote or survey appointment. The five steps are in leads from live chat.
  • Measuring and adjusting: seeing per page what share of visitors starts a conversation and what share of those conversations becomes an enquiry. Which figures to track is covered in live chat metrics.

What no chat software does by itself

Software takes care of the window and the inbox, but not the conversation. At Bconnect, we see in practice that the difference lies in three things you cannot switch on with a tick box.

  • Filling the knowledge base. The software knows nothing about your models, your bespoke work or your lead times. We gather that information together with the client and turn it into answers, scripts and qualifying questions. A lot of software expects you to supply everything yourself.
  • Setting the right triggers. An invitation on the wrong page or at the wrong moment delivers little. We tune triggers for each site and adjust them after go-live based on what works.
  • Asking follow-up questions. “Is this kitchen also available in another colour?” is an opportunity to ask about measurements, budget and a showroom appointment. Our chat specialists do that, not the software.

Our chat specialists work in ChatRocket, our own platform, and the AI takes care of the standard questions. Leads go with the full transcript to the client’s CRM, mailbox or support system, through a wide range of integrations. We work with three models: Operator Assisted AI, AI First with human handover and AI Only. If you start with a lot of human input, you can move to more AI later without starting again.

Live chat software is one part of live chat. How the channel itself works, its benefits, adding it and measuring it are in the guide everything about live chat.